


you're my friend, my best friend

by charjace



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, bc we need more of this beautiful friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 16:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18743185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charjace/pseuds/charjace
Summary: little bit of piper&leo before the mist changed everything





	you're my friend, my best friend

 

they had meet when they were being given a tour of the school by a student who had already been attending the place. piper barely paid much attention to the student speaking. this was yet another attempt at jane to get rid of her. for jane to get rid of the  _problem child_ , and for her dad to not notice her. a bitter laugh fell from her lips as they had stopped. jane was always clear about her dislike towards piper, and she just knows that jane probably is celebrating right now with some champagne knowing that she won’t be hearing about the trouble maker in a long while. the girl that had been leading them, told them that was it, that they can go to their rooms now. her eyes were calculating as if trying to figure out something.

this left her alone with the boy, she believe’s that he had introduced himself as leo, before he started fiddling with some wires he had pulled out from his pocket. this was a technology free school, so, how he still had those she didn’t know. she runs a hand through her hair. it was cut in a rash decision a week before she was sent to this school. it was a desperate attempt to get her father to notice her. she broke tradition, they hadn’t lost anyone important to them, she should have never put those scissors to her hair, but she wanted her father to  **notice** her. to talk to her for more then a few minutes. and now, she had been sent away, her father looking sadly as he left on a jet to go film a new movie. he didn’t say anything about her hair, he didn’t say  **anything**  except, ‘i’ll see you later.’

oh god, she hated this. she felt like she was going to cry, and why? because daddy didn’t love her? she can’t do that, not in front of a stranger anyway. maybe when she is alone in her room she’d let those tears fall.

“hey, piper. it’s piper right?” leo muses, flashing a grin towards her. he was still moving his hands over the wiring as he spoke. “what did you do to get sent here?”

“i didn’t really do anything. the guy gave it to me,” piper replies, she remembers the dealer ship. the smooth talking, the way he easily gave it to her all simply because she had  **asked**  for it. “but, he regretted it. called the cops i guess.”

“ah.... a klepto, got ya. i have nothing worth stealing,” was leo’s response and piper just shook her head. her eyes watching as the wiring leo had been fiddling with now glowed as it was attached to a board with little lights on it. “unless you want this? not sure what it is. i just found it broken, wanted to fix it. don’t worry, i won’t call the cops on you.”

leo holds out the item towards her, and he’s giving a small laugh and piper can’t help but smile. she takes the item, it was probably a part of someone’s broken toy. piper thinks that maybe this will be the start of a great friendship.

“so... why were  _you_ sent here?” piper asks, nodding her head signalling that she was wanting to walk. and it seems that leo got the message and they started walking back down the hall.

“well, you see, that is a mystery.” leo says before laughing a little, “nah, it’s not. the system put me here. they think it’s better then a new home.”

piper gives a small nod of her head. her heart feeling a little heavy at the statement given. her mother had abandoned her, but she still had her father, on some on reachable level. she doesn’t know where she’d be right now, had she not had her father or grandpa tom. she doesn’t make a comment, nor ask about it. not when they aren’t close and she doesn’t know what could push leo away. she needed someone in this new school, and leo feels like the right fit for the job.

they had pretty much all the same classes and that was great. though, she wasn’t a fan of gym with coach hedge, always yelling and trying to push them to their limits.

some of the others in school didn’t get it. why she didn’t befriend them, but befriended the ‘runway adhd troubled’ kid. it wasn’t hard to know that those kids were the popular kind, the ones who wanted to rule the school - which is exactly why she stuck with leo. who was down to earth. and those kids are the reason she doesn’t let them know who her father is.

see, it’s not that she isn’t proud of her father, she is. it’s just, when she was younger, there was a time, when she told people who he was and then, they changed the way they acted around her. she hated it and vowed to herself to never let anyone know who her father is - especially her school mates.

leo, wasn’t like those ‘popular’ kids, and when he found out who her father is he looked excited, but he didn’t treat her any different, never asked for anything - just, kept on being her friend.

the other kids at school liked to make the pair a target. leo for his jokes, for his constantly playing with things. piper, for her being half white, half cherokee, for her being  _friends_  with leo. because while the guys in the school like to drag on her at times, they do still seem to find her attractive and she  _hates_  that with a passion.

it was one day, when she saw leo sitting outside of their classroom, a saddened look upon his impish features as he was making something with pipe cleaners and paper probably stolen from the art room. she took a seat next to him, bumping his shoulder with her own. “what’s up? you look a little down.” she asks.

“you know, they’re right.” leo says in reply, making piper confused. she didn’t understand where this was coming from.  _who_  was right? and what about. she didn’t get to answer because leo continued on, “you  _are_  good looking, and sweet and smart. yet your friends with the reject.”

“who called you a reject?” piper asks, trying to keep the anger that was boiling up in her. who called her friend, her  _best friend_  that. who dared to say that to his face.

“no one. not really. it’s very much implied. when my mother...” leo stops for a moment and piper doesn’t say anything. he doesn’t talk much about his mother, but she knows he had one, that when he does it’s about the things he loved about her. “my aunt, she wouldn’t take me in. to her i was the diablo. turned the rest of our family on me. then... you know, the foster system is pretty screwed up. i’m a reject by design. no one needs to say it.”

clenching her fist, then un-clenching them, piper looks over at her friend next to her. “you listen here valdez,” she was doing something she never thought she would; channel her inner coach hedge. she places her hand upon his shoulder and waiting until they’re looking eye to eye. “you are to never say that ever again. you are no reject, not in my eyes. you are much more then what anyone else thinks. you are my best friend. nothing is ever going to change that. you hear me?”

leo doesn’t respond, and his hands still on whatever he had been working on.

“you  _hear me valdez?”_  piper asks once again, staring right into leo’s eyes.

then, she see’s leo crack a smile, “yes sir!” he says with a mock salute and they crack up laughing before the bell rings and they heading into class. finding their usual seats at the back of the room.

leo was her best friend, he understood that she didn’t need anyone to fight her battles. he helped her when it came to maths, he always did his best to help her when it came even if the words to explain the equations didn’t come easy. she understood in the end. her room was littered with little things leo had made. they both laughed it off when people tried to start a rumour that they were dating. because that had to be the reason that piper was hanging out with leo. and not because he was a funny, nice and smart guy that piper loved to hang out with. they didn’t see that, and piper thought that they were the ones missing out on a great friend.

then... things changed on a trip to the grand canyon.


End file.
